HD Disc Format War Not Over By a Long Shot

[Ken S]

Sales of HD DVD Players Plunge After Warner Move:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/28/te...gy/28disc.html

I noticed BB has a buy one get one free on selected HD-DVD titles this week.

[PRO-630HD]

Originally Posted by Ken S

Sales of HD DVD Players Plunge After Warner Move:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/28/te...gy/28disc.html

I noticed BB has a buy one get one free on selected HD-DVD titles this week.

In all fairness this was before the hddvd player price drop and over 30% of the bluray players in that add were Sharp players that were given away for free.

The Warner move has caused massive momentum for bluray though as it would have done the same no matter which way they went. This is HBO, New Line and Warner 1 minor and 2 very big studios.

[kkozma]

Originally Posted by PRO-630HD

In all fairness this was before the hddvd player price drop and over 30% of the bluray players in that add were Sharp players that were given away for free.

The Warner move has caused massive momentum for bluray though as it would have done the same no matter which way they went. This is HBO, New Line and Warner 1 minor and 2 very big studios.

Actually, nearly 100% of those players were given away for free that week.

30% Sharp
30% Sony
30% Panasonic

[PRO-630HD]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Don't forget that Toshiba was the first studio to pay for exclusivity (ie, Disney wasn't paid for an exclusive contract, just given subsidies on BD replication for a while). And the reasons that both Disney and Fox supported BD had nothing to do with Sony: Disney wanted Java, 50GB, and region coding and Fox wanted BD+ security.

I am going to have to respectfully disagree here. I firmly believe more money has been spent in this format war on studios before the formats even launched that it is not even funny. Disney was inititally in the hddvd camp. They helped develop HDi and yes they did want the interactivity. They were asked at the IFA in Berlin in Sept. 07 if they took a payout to be Blu exclusive. Their reply was "no comment".

Look at how Toshiba tried to get both Warner and Paramount to go HD exclusive in Aug. 07. I am sure it was because that was when their contracts with the BDA ran out. Now is this a straight sum of cash or incentives such as Sony paying for BD-50 replication. Isn't it really the same thing.

We all know Sony and Phillips have made a mint on CD royalties. We know Toshiba has made a mint on dvd royalties. Why the format war. To me royalties is what it is all about. Why do you think Sony was initially so insisitant on using MPEG-2 instead on VC1 or AVC on most of the their titles. This included a few Warner releases, most Paramount blurays, Sony, Lionsgate, Fox, MGM, etc. They make money if the codec is used.

I firmly believe many of these companies were locked into contracts on both sides. Look at all the talk of Universal's contract with Toshiba ending this month so they could go bluray. I am not saying this is true concerning Universal. I am sure all the lawsuits filed by Sony in the 80's against Universal concerning Beta had far more to do with it. We know Warner had a contract with Toshiba through May 08. I am sure the bluray camp has the same stance concerning studios and contracts if not even more so.

[gstarr]

I just think it is a bit crazy to get one's knickers in a twist over Blu Ray or HD. I have plenty of computers I have given away and plenty of electronics I don't use or just didn't make it.

If you have an HD player and lots of discs--keep watching. If you don't, wait until Blu Ray version 2.0 comes out and buy it. I'm sure there will be lots of manufacturers of it.

People are acting like they lost their last nickel.

Unless you work for Toshiba or Sony (or have some other financial reasons) I can't understand why anyone really cares.

Greg

Greg

[TheMoose]

Woolworths drop HD-DVD

Woolworths backs blu-ray format over HD-DVD
Monday, 28 January 2008
Woolworths, one of the biggest retailers of DVDs in the UK, has become the first major retailer to solely back one of the new high definition DVD formats.

The high street firm has announced that it will only stock Blu-Ray high definition DVDs from March, with HD-DVDs being dropped from stores to be sold online.

The move comes after Blu-Ray DVDs outsold HD-DVDs by ten-to-one in Woolies stores over Christmas.

From March Woolworths stores will have a Blu-Ray DVD chart in all 820 stores and a Blu-Ray DVD back catalogue section in larger stores.

I guess Woolworths is big in the UK.
I guess Blu-Ray has been even farther ahead in Europe.